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More than 70 pre-Columbian artifacts seized from home of Dutch couple

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(Photo courtesy of the Public Ministry)

(Photo courtesy of the Public Ministry)

October 23rd, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) More than 70 authentic pre-Columbian artifacts were seized from the home of a Dutch couple in Piedades de Santa Ana yesterday morning.

 

Many of the pieces are worth more than $100,000 each on the international market, according to estimates by the National Museum.

 

The couple, identified by the last name Van Wilpe, could face three to five years in prison for violation of the National Archaeological Heritage Act.

 

An environmental inspector who visited the couple’s property earlier this month while investigating the couple for possible illegal logging and other violations of the Forestry Act apparently noticed the archaeological pieces in the couple’s home during his visit.

 

The pieces have been placed in the custody of the National Museum.

 

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  • Gary Hogan

    Thank you Costa Rica for preserving these artifacts!! Job well done!

  • Ginger Morris

    MY father came there in the 1960′s and bought and brought back a lot of these Burial Pots. Then the Government allowed them to go out of the Country and sold them.
    Here in the USA they are not worth anything close to $100,000 each.
    I don’t know were they get their figures. I had them appraised and authenticated. Cost Rica boost a lot. Who know how this couple found them or bought them?
    What Governement HOME will they be in NEXT… Like all the money they retrieve and the drug money they get….Where is that money? With the POTS….:)

    • expatin paradise

      It was legal to take these antiquities several decades ago, but laws have since been passed to make such artifacts the property of the country from which they originated. Authentic pre-Columbian pieces belong to the government.

      The fact remains, however, that many people here have some very nice collections and are seldom prosecuted or have the pieces confiscated. There are stone spheres in people’s front yards, and nobody does anything to remove them to the country’s parks or museums.

      One factor that makes this case different is that the collectors are foreigners, who, as every foreign-born person here knows, receive a different standard of justice. An even more important factor is whether these people have been selling the artifacts. It is one thing to collect out of an appreciation for the artifacts of a culture and another to take such items for profit. If these folks have been selling these pieces (for any amount – the monetary value is irrelevant), they deserve no sympathy.

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